When Clemson develops into a world-class research university, everyone wins
The world’s not flat; it’s spiky. Innovation driving prosperity clumps in local communities like Silicon Valley, Boston and Tel Aviv with top research universities at their cores. For the Upstate to continue our amazing renaissance, Clemson needs to develop as a world-class research university. This is an open letter to Clemson and Upstate leaders about a catalytic project to enhance Clemson as our region’s innovation engine to attract, develop, and retain top talent.
Fifteen years ago, then-Clemson president Jim Barker asked a provocative question: “If Clemson was in Greenville, what would we do different?” The answer is awe-inspiring:
- The Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR).
- Clemson graduate business programs in the ONE Building on Main Street.
- The Clemson University Biomedical Engineering Innovation Campus (CUBEInC) at Patewood.
- Clemson’s partnership with the Greenville Health System, including the new IMED campus.
- Lest we forget, Clemson’s 25+ years of leadership as the largest provider of graduate education at the University Center of Greenville.
While we’re celebrating, we also need to be realistic. Clemson’s top 20 status is based primarily on its undergraduate reputation. While some top research programs like bioengineering go back over 50 years, Clemson is new to the game and still learning how to be recognized as a top research university.
Now Clemson’s new president, Jim Clements, has put another provocative question to the community: “What will Clemson be 10, 20 or 50 years from now?”
We need a sense of urgency around a common problem Upstate leaders are already trying to solve. Corporate research directors and academic center chairs are both working hard to recruit the best talent into their organizations. Aligning their interests can create pipelines of talent that help both, as well as help recruit R&D facilities and corporate headquarters, and develop startup ecosystems, so top students find their best career opportunities here.
Engage corporations: An Upstate industrial research organization that prides itself on hiring Ph.D. engineering students from the country’s top 10 universities hasn’t hired a Clemson Ph.D. At the same time, Clemson is producing top graduate students in disciplines from automotive engineering to bioengineering, most of whom have to leave the region to find a job. Clemson can partner more closely with industrial R&D facilities in the region to align research in strategic areas so corporations can employ the pipeline of top graduate students, access faculty with specialized knowledge and facilities, and potentially license IP.
Engage economic developers: Top graduate students in the region and deep global relationships in the economic development community are huge assets. Clemson can partner with the economic development community to use this pipeline of talent to recruit industry R&D facilities and corporate headquarters. Michelin is a successful case study: We recruited Michelin manufacturing in the 1970s, then the Michelin Americas Research Corporation, and then the Michelin North America headquarters. South Carolina has the highest percentage of workers employed by foreign corporations of any state, so the economic development community has extensive global relationships to replicate the successful Michelin model. Where technical college graduates are the magnets that attract manufacturing, Clemson graduates are the magnets to attract R&D facilities and corporate headquarters.
Engage entrepreneurs: Entrepreneurship is blooming at Clemson, from the recently announced Spiro Founders Society’s $1.7 million challenge pledge, to the MBAe program in the College of Business and Behavioral Science and The Design and Entrepreneurship Network (The DEN) in the College of Engineering and Science. Beyond programs to educate and coach students into being entrepreneurs, there is a huge opportunity to partner with faculty who have compelling business ideas based on their research, but are self-aware they have neither the experience nor in many cases the desire to start companies alone. Brian McSharry and I have raised $1.35 million for Concepts to Companies based on this insight, committing to invest most of that in two startups based on Clemson research, Accessible Diagnostics and Recovr.
Engage university researchers: Clemson has many researchers who are preeminent in their fields with strong global relationships. The elegance of the model proposed here is that academic researchers remain in their comfort zones as academic researchers and aren’t expected to become businesspeople or economic developers. Faculty can collaborate more closely in growing the academic research enterprise with businesspeople and economic developers who benefit from the products of academic research: educated students, the faculties’ specialized knowledge and facilities, and intellectual property.
Engage alumni: Clemson’s 80,000 alumni may be the university’s most powerful asset. We need to maintain strong connection to top graduates who do leave the region, especially those who’ve obtained leadership positions in major corporations around the world. The Alumni Association has the broadest database of alumni, but their information about any graduate isn’t deep. Academic departments have much deeper information about their graduates, but they often guard it jealously and sometimes the knowledge leaves the university when faculty members do. Having a more comprehensive alumni engagement system should be a top project.
Engage the Legislature: About a decade ago, the Legislature had a burst of initiatives from the Centers of Economic Excellence Act, the University Infrastructure Act, the Life Sciences Act, and the Venture Capital Act. Most current legislators were not in the Legislature when these initiatives were passed and do not understand what they are or the benefits the state gets from them. We need to document and celebrate the successes of these past legislative programs. Then Clemson and its corporate and economic development partners should help the Legislature craft the next set of initiatives to continue to grow the state’s research enterprise.
If we align the interests and combine the extensive global relationships of academic researchers, corporate partners, economic developers, entrepreneurs and alumni in focused areas where we are among the best in the world, our renaissance has only begun.
